Mother Earth: Advanced techniques for creative photo composites

Mother Earth: Advanced techniques for creative photo composites

Sample Pages

Description

Are you interested in discovering new techniques and making awesome photo composites?

Transforming multiple stock photos into unique digital works of art is my passion. My goal is to share techniques I use consistently to achieve dynamic results. The ebook is an overview of my design process with a focus on areas I believe are most important. I cover these key concepts for photo composites; theme, planning the composition with stock photos, Pen Tool selection, light sources, organizing layers, effects buildup for elements, and finishing effects.

It has taken me years to learn and develop these techniques, and I’ll share them with you.

Video

Watch the photo composite process come to life in this time-lapse video. If you enjoy the video and are interested in learning the key techniques, you’ll love the ebook!

About the author

Jamie is a BFA graduate and full-time graphic artist. He is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop CS6. Acknowledgements include winning the iStock Battle Royale IV (Photoshop competition) and being published in Advanced Photoshop, Photoshop Creative and Photoshop User.

Although I’m not a photo composite artist (yet), I purchased Jamie’s ebook for two reasons: 1) as a professional graphic designer who spends a lot of time in Photoshop for various clients, I wanted to gain some extra knowledge of Photoshop tools I already use and 2) as a long-time fan of Jamie’s work in the iStock Battle Royale, I wanted a glimpse at the processes he uses to compose his creations.

Purchasing Jamie’s ebook was an easy decision for me for those reasons: at just $5 and based on the creations in his portfolio, I knew this would be a steal for me to learn some new Photoshop tips from a pro and gain some insight into the processes involved with photo compositing. It also had an added benefit I hadn’t considered: in my spare time, I’m a charcoal portrait artist who mocks up portraits in Photoshop before I set to work with charcoal. Many times I have to combine photos for the best portrait composition, and the tips I’ve learned from this ebook will actually help me with my mockups - particularly with lighting.

The ebook itself is extremely thorough, starting with the initial storyboarding phase and providing step-by-step instructions to achieve the finished piece that is pictured on the cover. Jamie provides a complete list of stock photos used in his composition, and for about $10 one could purchase the photos and follow along to reproduce a similar piece. Jamie provides screenshots with each step, and each task is explained in detail yet is very easy to understand for the moderate to experienced Photoshop user. Jamie’s conversational tone and the clean layout make the ebook a leisurely read and one that I enjoyed despite not following the steps to create my own work. I also appreciated the recap at the end that showed the work in progress photos side-by-side.

Overall I enjoyed the ebook very much, and it makes me look forward to when I have some spare time to actually sit down at the computer and try my own hand at creative photo composites. It’s obvious a lot of time was spent to document the steps involved in the “Mother Earth” composite, and I appreciate Jamie’s willingness to spend that time and share his process.